Retention Policy for Archived Backups

For archived backups, Veeam Backup for AWS retains restore points for the number of days defined in backup scheduling settings as described in section EC2 Backup Policies.

To track and remove outdated restore points from an archive backup chain, Veeam Backup for AWS performs the following actions once a day:

Veeam Backup for AWS checks the configuration database to detect archive backup repositories that contain outdated restore points.
If an outdated restore point exists in a archive backup repository, Veeam Backup for AWS performs the following operations:

If the backup chain contains more than 20 backups and the total size of these backups exceeds 50 GB, deploys a worker instance in an AWS Region where the backup repository is located to process a retention task. Otherwise, Veeam Backup for AWS processes the task on the backup appliance.

By default, Veeam Backup for AWS uses the default network settings of AWS Regions to deploy worker instances. However, you can add specific worker configurations. For more information on worker instances, see Managing Worker Instances.

Transforms the archive backup chain in the following way:

Veeam Backup for AWS rebuilds the full archive backup to include there data of the incremental archive backup that follows the full archive backup. To do that, Veeam Backup for AWS injects into the full archive backup data blocks from the earliest incremental archive backup in the chain. This way, the full archive backup ‘moves’ forward in the archive backup chain.

Retention Policy for Archived Backups

Veeam Backup for AWS removes the earliest incremental archive backup from the chain as redundant — this data has already been injected into the full archive backup.

Retention Policy for Archived Backups

Veeam Backup for AWS repeats step 2 for all other outdated restore points found in the archive backup chain until all the restore points are removed. As data from multiple restore points is injected into the rebuilt full archive backup, Veeam Backup for AWS ensures that the archive backup chain is not broken and that you will be able to recover your data when needed.

Retention Policy for Archived Backups

If the worker instance was deployed, Veeam Backup for AWS removes this worker instance from Amazon EC2 when the retention session completes.

Note

The retention task processes only 1 backup chain.

Veeam Backup for AWS can process maximum 10 retention tasks at a time. If the number of retention tasks that must be processed on the backup appliance is more than the specified limit, the tasks exceeding this limit are queued.
Each worker instance can process only one retention task at a time. Veeam Backup for AWS simultaneously can deploy maximum 10 worker instances that process retention tasks. If the number of retention tasks that must be processed on worker instances is more than the specified limit, the tasks exceeding this limit are queued.